8/18/2017

Obiano washed off his hands over IPOB Killings

Governor Willie Obiano of
Anambra state has washed off his hands in the killings of the members of Indigenous
People of Biafra (IPOB) on May 30, 2016 . He said the impression held in some
quarters that he was responsible for the death of several members of IPOB at
Nkpor was false and unfounded.

The governor spoke when he
received the members of Biafran War Veterans led by Gen. Joe Achuzie (Air raid)
at Governor's Lodge, Amawbia, who paid him a condolence visit over the
death of his mother, Mrs. Christiana Obiano. Obiano said that he could
not have ordered the killing of those who voted for him in 2013 election,
saying " he has a mentality that guides him in issues of
conviction which made him to go against all opinions and vehemence from federal
authorities to still bury those that died during the civil war, less than a
year into the life of his administration.

He said "Abuja was against
my plan to bury the victims of Biafran war, there was a lot of opposition to it
from security agencies but I went on to bury our war heroes. As a young boy
during the war, I knew what happened. I saw many dead bodies and I know the
importance of according proper burial rites to the departed, more so, those
that departed in the painful and regrettable way as they did, so I had to
embrace all odds to bury them in an elaborate ceremony on the 12th of January
2015, less than one year into my administration. How then will I
contemplate killing their offspring for the same reason of Biafra. I didn't do
that, I'm innocent of the name calling."

Gov. Obiano
also said that the report the security agencies made available to him on
the incident showed that nobody was killed but that when he visited Menax
hospital , St. Charles Borromeo hospital among others to see the victims
himself and to provide succor to them, he was told that people were
killed and that some of those killed and the injured were taken out of the
state to neighboring states as very many of them came from outside Anambra
state. Obiano said he was elated to pay the hospital bills of the victims but
some of them refused his offer. He also said he was deeply sorry for
what happened and assured that he has since then been battling to ensure that
such incident doesn't happen again in Anambra state.

While regretting the circumstances
that led to the current agitation for Biafra, the governor said that he had
told the President, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, that if what is being done for the
Northeast or close to it was done for the Igbos after the war, there
would have been no agitation for Biafra today. "That the
impassable federal roads in the southeast, the issue of 2nd Niger Bridge and
the general lack of federal presence as viewed by the youths of Igboland, make
the longing for Biafra, a recurring decimal" said the Governor.
Obiano said he has directed that history about
Biafra should be taught in schools in the state: “Our children need to know
what happened. There are about four or more very good books on Biafra, it is
important that our children are told of what happened and I have directed that
Biafran history be taught in our schools in Anambra state." he said.

Obiano told the
Biafran Ex- servicemen that he appointed a liaison officer for the Biafran
war veterans in order to ensure that issues affecting them and by extension
pro-Biafra groups were better handled and that he is the only one that created
such office.

Giving insight into what
happened when Boko-Haram convicts were brought to the state, Gov. Obiano said
that they were the worse set of Boko-Haram.
He said “they
were brought all the way from N'Djamena, Chad Republic and one of the
nine (9) convicts came with his nine (9) wives and fourteen (14) children. He
informed that he had to struggle to get them out of Anambra state and southeast
because their presence was a psychological trauma to Ndigbo" He then
appealed to members and the leadership of , IPOB and other pro-Biafra
groups to maintain decorum, reminding them of the maxim that says:
"talk is cheap but war is expensive."

In his speech, the leader
of the Biafran war veterans Chief Joe Achuzie said Gov. Obiano was innocent of
the accusations as nothing before, during and after the incident suggested that
the governor was culpable. Achuzie spoke extensively on
the build up to the protest that led to the killings, whose information he said
he was privy to, and recalled how he had spoken with the then Anambra State
Commissioner of Police to request that they allow the agitators to stage a
peaceful protest but noted that on the said day, the army who were not in the
picture, suddenly appeared and became trigger-happy in killing citizens they
were meant to protect. "Sadly enough, after attacking the IPOB peaceful
protesters, a false report was forwarded to the state governor that nobody was
killed."

He urged the people not to
be misled by the callous and malicious insinuations that the Governor has a
hand in the shooting but to rather face the federal authorities that authorized
the killings.

Earlier, Gov. Obiano's
Liaison Officer to the Biafran War Veterans, Comrade Arinzechukwu Awogu had
said that the rumor of "shoot at sight" was first muted by the
opposition elements in the state, saying that given the level of
bitterness pervading the air over the killings, some persons bought into it
without a second thought and the erroneous impression began to grow.